It is important in many situations to maintain the security of one's vehicle and/or home. Various camera and alarm systems have been developed to monitor vehicles and homes while the owner is away. Some of these systems utilize multiple cameras, either video or still, to take images of the surroundings and record them on a recording device.
In the context of vehicle security, it is often necessary to monitor the entire periphery of the vehicle to prevent theft and/or identify the sources of a break in or damage to the vehicle. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,934,011 to Vidal Soler. The disclosed vehicle security system provides a series of cameras placed around the periphery of a subject vehicle and a digital video recorder to record the images and combine them into a mosaic of images for viewing by the owner. The mosaic of images can be viewed within the vehicle or transmitted to a remote screen for viewing.
Most often, there is no need for continuous video recording of the surroundings of a vehicle. The need to video record the surroundings most arises when there is an incident such as the triggering of an alarm system or the activation of a designated ignition switch. Additional instances of video recordings may include activation of a home alarm system when the subject vehicle is located within a home garage or in the home driveway or activation of a panic button on a key fob. In other instances, a user tray wish to activate the cameras and video recording system remotely from a smartphone or other transmitter device in response to a perceived concern about the safety of the vehicle.
Accordingly, there is an established need for a vehicle camera and recorder activation system that can provide an activation of a series of cameras and a digital video recorder for a predetermined amount of time and in response to an incident occurring at the vehicle.